


Like Real People Do

by EzraTheBlue



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst with a Hopeful Ending, Embedded Images, Inspired by Art, Inspired by Music, M/M, Reunions, World of Ruin, implied ot4 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21617614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzraTheBlue/pseuds/EzraTheBlue
Summary: After three years in the darkness absent his dearest friends, Prompto feels like he's begun to forget who he is in this dismal existence. A chance encounter, however, offers a friendly reminder.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46





	Like Real People Do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NiscuitGravy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiscuitGravy/gifts).



> This was sort of a table-tennis collaboration between myself and Niscuit! ( [AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiscuitGravy/pseuds/NiscuitGravy) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/NiscuitG) | [Tumblr](https://niscuit-gravy.tumblr.com/)) Essentially, she had an idea, and I bounced that idea off of her, and she did a rough sketch, and I wrote some fic, and she drew some more picture, and then I finished some fic, and while we never really agreed to collaborate, both of our pieces came from the same idea and, in my opinion, should be taken in concert. 
> 
> The original inspiration for this fic, at Niscuit's suggestion, is ["Like Real People Do," by Hozier](https://youtu.be/97uHUyPL5dA)

**Like Real People Do**

Prompto was posted at the gate to Hammerhead for his shift on guard duty like he was most nights these days, staring off into the middle distance but feeling like he wasn’t really there, or anywhere. He didn’t know the too-young man standing opposite him, handling the other side of the gate, nor the boy in the watchtower. Sometimes, he didn’t know himself anymore, his own reflection lost to the dark. The only two people he really knew anymore were far, far away, as far as he knew, and he had agreed to stay here to protect one of their last bastions of safety while they were both away, for however long they were gone.

Time stretched endlessly across the hours undivided by night or day, the minutes and hours hardly feeling real. It was a sensation Prompto was still getting used to, even after three years without sunlight, and so much time spent alone in the dark.

In the distance, lights flashed, there was crashing noise and echoes of fight, distant crackling fires and the explosions of bombs. Even from this far, Prompto could distinguish the howls of daemons, a Red Giant, maybe an Arachne or two. It didn’t matter. Prompto wasn’t there, just a distant spectator to the spectres. Their voices echoed in the empty places in his soul, reminding him of what was missing. What maybe had never been there to begin with.

Almost too quickly, the noises faded, and that was strange. Prompto signaled the other guard. “I’m going out there to investigate that.” The other guard nodded automatically, and Prompto grabbed one of the spare motorbikes, kicked the stand off with his heel, and rode out in the direction of the fight. Usually when the fights ended faster than expected, Prompto would be picking up a set of dog tags and hoping Cindy or Cid could find some next of kin. He didn’t have a family, but he knew if it were him, he’d want some evidence that he’d lived returned to the last two people remaining who’d ever cared that he had existed.

The road was quiet, the only noise the roar of his bike’s motor too loud against the beaten desert. Prompto could place so many memories on these mesas. He recalled days roaming the desert looking for trouble, driving down the highway in the sun taking pictures of billboards or of his friends laughing and talking or even just reading or drinking out of a can of Ebony. He still remembered nights by campfires, eating better than he’d ever eaten at home, crammed into a tent not meant to hold four fully-grown men but all of them curled up next to one another all the same; in each other’s spaces and lives and  _ belonging _ there. Now it was just him and this endless road to nowhere in the dark, with only the too-bright light of his motorbike’s headlight keeping the darkness at bay.

He wondered how long the darkness had really been there, how long it had been encroaching on those moments and memories, before it had overtaken them. 

He reached the area where he estimated the fight had been, soon confirmed by the appearance of scorch marks on the ground around him. Prompto grimaced and parked the bike on the side of the road, then turned his personal flashlight on and got his pistol in his hand. He searched for tracks in the dark and sought out the path of the fight to find its end. He was too tired to be curious about what had been there before he’d arrived. He just wanted to find what was left.

It turned out to be  _ who _ . A figure in familiar clothing was slumped down against a covered pickup truck, and Prompto bolted over. Ignis, his uniform road-roughened, protected only by a tattered coat with something’s blood on it, was breathing raggedly, his hand to his chest, and Prompto knelt by him and grabbed it tight. “Iggy? I’m here. It’s okay, I’m here.” 

Ignis lifted his head, the light from Prompto’s flashlight catching in the hollow spaces in his scars and casting deep shadows, before his mouth split in a smile. “Ah, Prompto. Good to… well, you know.” He laughed airily, humorlessly. Prompto almost laughed anyway.

“You have no idea how good it is to see you,” Prompto rasped, voice watery. He counted the days, hours,  _ seconds _ since he’d last seen Ignis, but knew in his soul that even a moment was too long. He never knew how to say how much it hurt to see them walk away, not after the last time he’d watched Noctis walk away, not since the three of him had dug him out of his cell in Zegnautus Keep with extended hands. He didn’t feel like himself without them, and even with Ignis in bad shape in front of him, he cracked a real smile for the first time in weeks. “Ran into a little trouble?”

“Quite literally.” Ignis patted the wall of the truck beside him, and Prompto noticed the dent in the grill. “We struck something, a Lich if my ears didn’t deceive me. My driver, unfortunately, fled into the wilderness. I heard him running northwest towards the settlement by the mines, but I don’t know if he’ll reach it.”

“You want me to go after him?”

“I don’t know what you’ll find.” Ignis sighed. “But if you could at least get me back to Hammerhead before you go looking. I admit I’m rather tired after all the excitement.” He gave Prompto his usual winning smile, and for a second, Prompto forgot all the scars. It was Ignis, just Ignis, and suddenly it didn’t matter where they were or what was happening around them. Prompto felt like a person again.

“Let me just put the bike I took out here into the back, and I’ll get you back there safe and sound.” He stood, not letting go of Ignis’ hand. “Can I help you to your feet so you can get into the car?”

Ignis pulled himself to a stand using Prompto’s hand, long limbs clumsy, and Prompto could see his exhaustion in even the way he walked. It was more than just being tired from a fight taken on his own. Prompto never asked Ignis what he was doing when he went on one of his long walkabouts. He said it was ‘research,’ and he’d mention meeting people in Lestallum, or finding Sania Yeager to trade information. He was searching through the Solheim ruins and digging through the libraries in Altissia. Prompto had heard him talking to Cor about finding a way into the royal archives under the Citadel. Prompto wanted to know what he was digging for, but never asked. It didn’t matter. Ignis was here, that was what mattered. Even so, he wasn’t finding what he sought. The weight of that hung heavy on him. Prompto would do what he could to lift it, if only for a few hours.

Prompto maneuvered his bike into the back of the truck alongside a few crates of supplies, and got into the driver’s seat. Ignis let him drive now without complaint of protest; he didn’t have much choice. Still, Ignis felt comfortable enough to slump down in the seat, his remaining open eye fluttering shut. It was reassuring that Ignis did trust Prompto that much.

The gates to Hammerhead opened for him, two too-young Glaive kids Prompto didn’t know pulling the gates wide, and Prompto parked near the garage. He set one of the Glaves who wasn’t doing anything else to unloading the truck and taking it to Takka so he could take stock of what Ignis had brought with him, and took Ignis over to the camper. Ignis slumped into one of the plastic chairs as Prompto turned the lights on overhead. “Hope you don’t mind sleeping over here. There’s plenty of empty bunks in the basement, but-”

“No privacy,” Ignis finished, filling in the blanks. “It’s fine. I’m alright with the camper. It’s nostalgic, really.”

“Nostalgic” sounded equal parts painful and beautiful off of Ignis’ tongue. Prompto sometimes wondered if he remembered what the camper looked like, the dirty old electric coil stoves and the sagging mattresses that smelled like old cologne, the four of them tucked into the bunks and fold-out futon however they could fit. Prompto had felt real back then. He missed that.

“Cool,” was what Prompto ended up saying and he went to turn the stove on. “I’ll get a can of soup from Takka, you just, uh-”

“I’m not hungry just now.” Ignis twisted from his seat, face turning towards where Prompto was. “I’d rather just have some company, if you don’t mind.”

“No, never.” Prompto didn’t hesitate to rejoin Ignis. “I missed you.”

He hadn’t meant to say it, not really, no matter how true it was. Ignis didn’t need to be guilt-tripped. It was so hard not to break every time one of the others walked away, and he felt so childish every time he had to choke back tears when Gladio split off from him to take care of business somewhere else and expected Prompto to stay behind and keep taking care of things where they’d been, or when Ignis went off on one of his “research” missions without saying where he was going. It was even harder when Dave called and asked him to leave one of the others behind. He knew it was their duty to take care of the world in case Noctis ever came back. However, Prompto knew that Noctis would probably only care that the three of them were there, waiting for him. Prompto was kind of the same. He could only stand for them to walk away if he promised himself they’d come back, and even then, he pined and ached for them every second.

He couldn’t ask them to stay, and never did, no matter how little he wanted to hold them all tight like he used to.

However.

“I missed you as well, and dearly.” Ignis extended his hand, and Prompto couldn’t stop the huge smile that split his face. He took Ignis’ hand and clasped it tight.

Prompto wanted so much to tell Ignis everything he felt and thought when they were gone, but he knew it would only serve to make them think he was childish, or worse, that he was too immature to handle the things they were asking of him. He tucked it all away, burying it deep, but when Ignis pulled him in and kissed the back of his hand, he got the feeling Ignis already knew how he felt. He didn’t really have to say, even if saying it out loud might take some of that burden off of himself. Just having Ignis here was enough.

“Truth be told,” Ignis murmured, tugging Prompto in close, “I’ve been away too long. So many hours away from all the things that made me who I am made me begin to forget.” 

Prompto’s heart sank. “I kind of know the feeling. I’m here most of the time, and I spend every day just standing around, standing guard. I kind of start feeling like...” Prompto bit his lip and trailed off, afraid to finish his thought.

“Darling,” Ignis whispered, fraught, afraid of whatever words Prompto couldn’t say. “You’re fine, my darling. Everything you do is so deeply needed and appreciated. If there is to be a future, we all must do what we’re doing.” He pulled Prompto closer. “For now, however, a reminder of just who we are, and how much I love you.”

Prompto sank in closer, standing over Ignis and leaning down to put his lips over Ignis’, and Ignis tilted his head up and kissed him, deep. Like Prompto deserved to be kissed. Like Ignis needed just as much to just be a man in love. 

They remained in place for a long few minutes, trading kisses, touches of teeth and tongue, Ignis surging into Prompto’s mouth, Prompto accepting each kiss deep and returning every one. The darkness vanished around them, and so many unspoken, bright, beautiful things filled that void. New memories, things neither of them could name, emotions Prompto would never be able to explain. Ignis’ arms came to wrap up around him, Prompto sank a hand into Ignis’ hair and carded his fingers through, and there they stayed.

“I was coming to visit you,” Ignis murmured against his mouth. “Stay with me?”

Prompto chuckled, and from the lightness in Ignis’ expression, he could feel Prompto’s smile. “Like you have to ask.”

Prompto sank into the here and now, the security of who he was and where he belonged heavy but comfortable like a blanket against the cold, and he forgot everything else but loving Ignis for just a little while. Like he was a real person again.

**Author's Note:**

> Original image source: [Niscuit's Tumblr](https://niscuit-gravy.tumblr.com/post/189236639296/honey-just-put-your-sweet-lips-on-my-lips-we)


End file.
